Comments on: BP Oil Leak: Good News, Bad News

By: CherryBomb

CherryBomb — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 21:10:48 +0000

Just one nit-picky thing. The relief wells are not for drawing oil from the reservoir. They are going to use a column of heavy mud in those to push down against the formation pressure, and then flood the whole area with cement to block off the original well from all contact with the porous rock that holds the oil and gas.

By: Russell

Russell — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 20:24:27 +0000

Unless you believe that the bore just happened to follow a particularly weak structure that runs all the way from the seabed to the reservoir, which strikes me as quite implausible, especially given the depth of the well, there is a depth at which a relief well can seal the well.

By: BioEngineerGreg

BioEngineerGreg — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 19:33:59 +0000

Thoma, the problem with that approach is the same thing that prevented the First Attempt from working. Remember the “Top Hat”? As this pumping system pulled in the oil/gas mixture as well as cold seawater it created a slurry in the pipeline to the surface. As this slurry rose, and the pressure correspondingly dropped, the seawater mixed with the methane (as it transitioned from liquid–> gas) and created the hydrate crystals which then clogged the pipeline. I’m not an expert on this stuff, but it seems to be critical to keep seawater out of the mixture when pumping to the surface from a mile below.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:26:58 +0000

Wouldn’t it be safer to just put the biggest pump they can come up with on the other end of the pipe to the surface and not seal the cap? As long as you pump hard enough you should suck in essentially all the oil as well as surrounding sea water. Sure, it’s inconvenient to have water in your oil, but under the circumstances that seems like a minor problem.